Bugyotsuji Posted December 2, 2014 Report Posted December 2, 2014 Part I has finished and I missed it. Part II runs from Nov 22 until Jan 12th, if anyone is in the area. The castle was lit up this evening. The museum is in part of the former castle grounds. 17 swords, 2 sets of old armour, some scrolls, some lavishly gilded sets of pristine lacquerware, wedding dowries, and some decorated porcelain dishes and bowls. ********************************************* The first 5 Tachi, all Jubun, (Juyo Bunka Zai) were Yoshikane, Chikakane, 2 x Masatsune and a Mei 一. They were carefully chosen to show progression in the development of the Hamon and Ji/hada. No.6 was a Kokuho Tachi by Yoshifusa, who started to get Nioi right and produced rounded and balanced Choji hamon. Three Jubun followed, ie a suriage Fukuoka Ichimonji Katana, and Tachi by Sukezane, and lovely Mitsutada (father? of Nagamitsu). Sadly Nobunaga collected Mitsutada and had most of them suriage'd. No. 10 was a long-Mei Kokuho Nagamitsu, massive Tachi. No. 11 was a Jubun Tachi, another long name Nagamitsu, dated 1289. 5 more Jubun Tachi followed, by Suemori, (Bitchu) Masatsune, San Jo Yoshi-ie, Kikugyo, and a Takamitsu of 1324. Finally another pride and joy, the Kokuho Meibutsu 'Kuki' Masamune Tanto which is rumoured to have cost them 200,000,000 JPY. (Which would be, erm... about 150,000 USD per inch.) List translated by me. All errors are thus mine. Quote
Guido Posted December 2, 2014 Report Posted December 2, 2014 Finally their pride and joy, the Kokuho Meibutsu 'Kuki' Masamune Tanto which is rumoured to have cost them 200,000,000 JPY.Maybe someone added a zero for drama - 200,000,000 Yen would be by far the highest price ever paid for a Japanese sword ... Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted December 2, 2014 Author Report Posted December 2, 2014 Someone I thought was a trustworthy source told me Ichi Oku = 100,000,000 and then someone else who also knows his onions corrected me and said no, it was actually 2 Oku. I believe 6 Oku is the top price paid for a sword, Guido...no? Quote
Guido Posted December 2, 2014 Report Posted December 2, 2014 AFAIK, the highest price ever paid was 418,000 US $ = about 50,000,000 Yen. However, since I usually don't buy in this price bracket, I could be wrong. 600,000,000 Yen would be more than 5,000,000 US $ - I'd love to see that sword! Quote
Jamie Posted December 2, 2014 Report Posted December 2, 2014 Thanks for the detailed description of the display. Sounds very nice. Quote
Darcy Posted December 4, 2014 Report Posted December 4, 2014 AFAIK, the highest price ever paid was 418,000 US $ = about 50,000,000 Yen. However, since I usually don't buy in this price bracket, I could be wrong. 600,000,000 Yen would be more than 5,000,000 US $ - I'd love to see that sword! That's the highest price that went at western auction ($418k) and is Walter Compton's Ichimonji. Sold at Christie's in 1992... the owner will not part for it for several low integer multiples of what he paid. I photographed this sword. It is spectacular. I handled an ubu Hisakuni once that was Hozon papered and the owner had refused 100 million yen for it. After he died the family accepted a lot lower and I was told at that time that $500k USD would do it. But hey, how many times will you stumble onto an ubu Hisakuni? Once. Level of the paper does not matter and the blade I think would go at least Juyo Bunkazai if the owner wanted that. Owner didn't care about anything other than confirming the mei so he got Hozon. A Masamune tanto was offered to me at $450k, it was an old semi-famous one and also put to Hozon to prepare for me but not realistically able for me to buy. It didn't last too long. Before that a Masamune had sold at $600k, just Juyo Token. Extremely important blades can fetch very high prices, I was told that the last time the Kosetsu Samonji traded hands it was over $1.2 million dollars and I have heard million to multi-million dollar prices quoted on other Juyo Bunkazai or Kokuho pieces. Before the yen crash a Jubi Kanemitsu went at Japanese auction for 45 million yen which would have been higher than the Compton Ichimonji. This is just what I know and it's not like I am there all the time... so I think there is a fairly fluid market for the ultimate blades. For people in Japan who remain interested and for whom money is no limit and there are no export issues, this is the playground for them. Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Posted December 5, 2014 The Yamatorige (Sanchomo in Japanese) Ichimonji changed hands a while back for 400,000,000 JPY, and 7 Oku was offered for another 400 mill sword that the owner refused to sell. Quote
Guido Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 I heard from a friend of a friend - who's a well respected dealer - that the acquaintance of a former NBTHK official talked about someone somewhere who may want to buy my Shodai Tsunahiro for 800,000,000 Yen ... Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Posted December 5, 2014 Guido, maybe he said 800,000,000 Won? Quote
Guido Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 Guido, maybe he said 800,000,000 Won?No, definately Yen, and the offer was raised to 9 oku, I've heard from someone in the know. But I will refuse to sell after learning here that those swords that are not sold have the highest value, followed by those that are rumored to have been sold for an awe-inspiring amount, and finally those that are actually confirmed sales. Come to think of it, I put the value of my sword at 1,000,000,000 Yen. Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Posted December 5, 2014 Returning to the sensible world for a second, it would not be diplomatic to reveal the name of the lady who owns the Sanchomo in the Okayama Prefectural Museum and the 4 oku that she paid for it. Quote
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